"What High School Can Be" By Theodore Sizer

Sizer began this excerpt through the eyes of two rather inattentive teenagers in high school. He starts with Will, an under-sized basketball star for the school team, who does absolutely no work in class. He also introduces Martha, who he describes as "an impassive but quietly gracious nineteen-year-old". She also struggles academically. In the reading, Sizer seems to ultimately blame the instructors for the lack of proper practice. He also states essential principles to better a high school overall.

In the excerpt Sizer mentioned that he traveled to number of different secondary schools across the country, where he meet students just like Will and Martha. Students who pay no attention to their work in class. He believes that so many students are inattentive because teachers in schools across the country struggle to keep students engaged in the lesson. He also believes that some of the material in the curriculum defied common sense. Sizer, along with his colleagues, designed what they called, "The Coalition of Essential Schools. Sizer also personally created a list that governed the coalition. The list stated the principles that secondary school teachers should follow to be both successful and efficient in teaching students.

After reading this excerpt I feel like Sizer should have been the principle of the most successful high school. He seems as if he has mastered all of the essential principles to teaching students. I believe that with him in charge of a secondary school, he would build a team of the best instructors to produce college ready students.

"In the Beginning" by Charles Elliot; "Creating the Comprehensive High School" by James Conant

In the Beginning gave me a view of why and how the education system came about. In this reading, Elliot introduces the Committee of Ten. A committee that was created to determine the purpose and topics of secondary school. During this time, approximately 7 percent of teenagers attended high school and there was no set curriculum. The Committee of Ten determined what topics were necessary for teenagers to learn in school and arranged them in to categories such as languages, humanities and sciences. The committee also decided who was qualified to teach these subjects.

The Committee of Ten concept relates directly to the sector of the Board of Education that now governs the function of high school institutions across the country. The one major difference that I noticed after reading this is that the Committee of Ten did not handle the financial aspect of high schools, or at least it was not mentioned in the reading. The Board of Education handles all responsibilities of schools, including financial responsibilities.

Creating the Comprehensive High School gives it's reader and overview of the ideal comprehensive high school. This excerpt presents both an examination of many comprehensive high schools in the country and also how they can be made better. Conant gives a rather long list of functions that are essential in the success of a comprehensive high school. This is a very broad list that includes elective programs and how a normal day should be organized.

Overall, In the Beginning was a view of high school in the late nineteenth century. It took us back to the start of the secondary education system. Creating the Comprehensive High School not only explained the function of a comprehensive high school, but also presented insight on the inner workings that make a high school better.